He has a great job at ITT: Meet Senior Matthew De Zaio

A few weeks after he graduates in May, Matthew De Zaio will begin working as an electrical engineer for ITT Corporation (ITT), the international engineering company. Matthew will help design electronic warfare equipment for the US military. He’ll work to assure that the military’s e-communications and radar systems cannot be jammed or intercepted.

It’s a great job that will pay him well while allowing him to work on leading-edge technologies. It will also give him a chance to climb up ITT’s corporate ladder. So how, in the midst of a severe recession, did Matthew get the job?

Earlier this year, Matthew attended an NJIT Career Fair, where he and talked to a recruiter from ITT. A few weeks later, the recruiter invited him in for an interview at ITT’s office in Clifton, N.J. The ITT managers he interviewed with were impressed by Matt’s academic record – he’s an Honors College scholar with a 3.995 GPA. They were further impressed by his commitment to electrical and computer engineering (ECE) – he chaired the IEEE student branch, was on an ECE advisory board and tutored ECE students in his dorm. And they were even more impressed with his work experience.

For two summers and even part-time into his senior year, Matthew interned at Fort Monmouth (he also got those internships from an NJIT Career Fair). During the internships, he worked on high-frequency communications systems and electronic warfare. The ITT managers saw that Matthew had experience in the areas for which they were hiring. So they hired him.

“I appreciate all the opportunities that NJIT gave me,” said Mathew, who was recently named the Newark College of Engineering’s Outstanding Senior in Electrical Engineering. “The NJIT faculty gave me a great education, the Career Center helped me get internships and a job and the Honors College and donors gave me generous scholarships. I couldn’t ask for more.”

When he was a boy, Matthew used to help his father do repairs around the house. He used to watch his father do electrical wiring, and, like a lot of boys, was intrigued by how electricity worked. His father took the time to explain it to him. And then later, as a student at J.P. Stevens High School, in Edison, Matthew took an electronic class whose teacher, Kevin Kearney, had students do hands-on projects such as build strobe lights, amplifiers and hand clappers that set lights on and off. Matthew was smitten. So when it came time for him to pick a college and a major, he chose NJIT and electrical engineering. Both were perfect picks.

Matthew is not the first in his family to graduate from the Newark College of Engineering. His late grandfather, Steven De Zaio, graduated from NCE in 1959. His grandfather later also worked as chief engineer on the Electrical and Computer Engineering Building at NJIT – a building in which Matthew spent most of his last four years.

And it looks like he’ll be spending more time in that building. For along with working full time at ITT, Matthew intends to return to NJIT, in the evenings, to work on a master’s degree in electrical engineering. He’ll focus on microwave engineering, communications and signal processing.

“I love electrical engineering and want to do research in these leading-edge areas,” he said. “I’m lucky to have found a major I love and a job that I’ll look forward to going to every morning. So many people, sadly, have jobs they hate but are stuck in. I feel very fortunate and have a deep sense of gratitude to NJIT.”